Teddy Lupin and the Chimney of Riddles
by TotheWardrobe
Summary: Victoire Weasley joins Hogwarts a gains the friendship of Teddy Lupin. What they thought was payback turned into wide spread panic and a fatal prophesy...
1. Teddy Lupin

Chapter 1 – Teddy Lupin

The classroom was silent apart from the slow groaning and mumbling that came from the front of it. Professor Binns classes were never as fun as Teddy would have liked but he couldn't do anything about it. He had tried of course, but Professor McGonagall seemed to think that Professor Binns seemed to be perfect for History of Magic lessons, being dead and all. The constant whirring at the front of room was actually the Professor talking about something that didn't interest Teddy, so naturally; he decided not to pay any attention. Professor Binns was really talking about the first uprising of the Goblin Revolution but made it sound more like an engine of a motor going on and on without any stop. For of course, being a ghost, the man didn't need to stop for breath, so he didn't. The next thing that Teddy knew was that the Professor had looked him straight in the eyes and had directed a question at him. "Sorry, what was that Professor?"

"I said; what are you about to do?"

"Erm, I – I don't know sir." Professor Binns sighed and put his hands on his hips.

"You are about to write up a report on the Goblin revolution! One thousand words at the least! Now get to it!" Teddy leant down and picked up his quill, before long he was slumped down on his seat. Professor Binns strode up to him. "Teddy! Why are you not working?" Behind him, Gravis Velit, a Slytherin boy, sniggered and whispered among his friends. Teddy then sat up and looked into the Professor's face.

"I don't have my book sir, it's in my dorm."

"Well you'll have to get one from my office, now hurry up!" The third year slowly rose from his chair and walked up the classroom with his head hanging. He pushed the door open and went inside. The office smelled of dead people, literally. If, unlike most people, you do not know the smell of dead people, Teddy described it as somewhere that had not been cleaned for a few years. The room itself was clean, but the air in it hung limp and lifeless. On Professor Binn's desk sat many books. Teddy glanced along the titles; '_Monopoly of the Muggles' _and '_Hogwarts; a History Volume I' _along with volume two. Finally, he came across '_The_ _Goblins Revolution_' and lifted it off the table and stole the office.

As Teddy stood silently in front of Professor Binns, his teacher was scanning over the poor work that he had done. Once again, Velit was behind making rude remarks about him. "Well, I don't think this is your best work Teddy but well done." Suddenly, Teddy was shoved forward by Velit and went straight through Professor Binns.


	2. Victoire Weasley

Chapter 2 – Victoire Weasley

Teddy Lupin paced down the corridor, his head hung down and he clutched his second hand books close to his chest. He couldn't believe that Gravis Velit had done it; especially for a small and cocky twig of a boy, doing that was a brave thing to do. But he knew that Teddy could not show his weaknesses again to him, even though Teddy knew that a duel against Velit would be easily won. But now he had to have detention with Professor Binns twice within the next two weeks. Momentarily, he heard a girl shouting loudly behind him in a mixed English and French accent; Victoire. He then quickly turned on his heels and started to run back down the corridor. Velit stood there with a wand held in his outstretched arm. In front of him stood a lanky first year in her neat Ravenclaw uniform with her golden hair hanging loosely around her shoulders. Teddy saw her jumping up to grab her wand back from what almost seemed to be a giant palm tree compared to her. Teddy then strode up to Velit and stood behind Victoire. "Give that back Velit!" He warned as the girl jumped higher to reach her wand but failed again.

"Defending our girlfriend are we?" Velit sarcastically suggested as his army of oafs sniggered behind him in their emerald Slytherin uniforms. His hair, like usual was a black scruffy mess, that seemed too short for his long face. "Pity that you got landed with these lot Lupin after your parents died! It is such a pity!" again, his gang laughed at Teddy. That was it; Teddy reached up and snatched the wand out of Velit's hand.

"It's not funny messing with first years Velit!" he turned to Victoire and put his arm around her back and ushered her forward. "Come on Victoire, you don't want to be hanging around with those lot." he gave her back her wand and walked down the corridor. But that was not the end for Velit.

"Suppose you think you're cool, looking after first years, well you're not, it's just pathetic, especially this one" he nodded towards Victoire.

"Don't test me Velit! I'm warning you, you don't want to know what happened to the last one!" Teddy warned. Victoire gasped and leant into Teddy.

"Don't do it!" she whispered urgently to him, "don't do it otherwise you'll get into massive trouble and everyone will know about it! Remember what Uncle Harry said, it's not safe inside or in front of people if you can't control it. Don't!" she pleaded. Teddy nudged her to the side and looked Velit straight in the eyes. Teddy blinked and his eyes sparkled golden.

Fifteen minutes later Gravis Velit sat up on the hospital bed wincing and moaning as Madam Pomfrey slowly wound a bandage around three deep cuts across Velit's arm. "But Madam Pomfrey I'm telling you, Teddy Lupin did it, he should be the one suffering!" Velit whined.

"Now do be quiet Velit!" she strolled back over to the medicine trolley and picked up a long jade bottle. "There is no way Mr. Lupin could have done this; do you see talons as his nails? Or fangs as his teeth? No, and there is no form of Magic a third year would know to cause outward physical cuts!" She then poured out a large spoonful of the fluorescent green liquid.

"But he did Madam Pomfrey! Professor Flitwick will be hearing about this!"

"I'm sure he will," she said in her routine voice, the way she normally spoke to Velit as he usually got himself into trouble. She shoved the spoon into Gravis' mouth to keep him quiet. "So tell me, why would Mr. Lupin personally carry you to the hospital wing if he was the culprit? And anyway, Teddy's a nice boy. Now look I've finished, now do run along, lunch ends in ten minutes!"

"Urgh! Yuck! What is that? It tastes like rotten pumpkin juice!" Velit winced and forced himself to swallow.

"Well what did you think it would taste like? Pixie Puffs? I'm afraid that's not how it works. If we flavoured it then the magic would not work as well. Sorry Velit, now, as I said, off to lessons with you otherwise Professor Sprout will not be happy!" Madam Pomfrey started to reorganise the trolley.

"I don't think she'd mind! I've heard that she's being replaced by a new teacher who lives over the top of the Leaky Cauldron _and _apparently he killed the Dark Lord's snake! Cool or what?"

"Yes, yes, I know, he used to come here a lot in his time here actually. Now, do I have to say it again or would you prefer me to call Teddy to carry you there?" Velit's face suddenly changed from humoured to absolute shock and he was out that archway within seconds.

The two stood next to each other, looking out on the broad horizon overlooking Hogwarts Castle. A place that Teddy could really call home, he always felt like he never belonged with the Potter's or the Weasley's at the Burrow. His parents were murdered during the Battle of Hogwarts when Voldemort was destroyed and Teddy was given to Harry as his Godson. Of course, everyone welcomed him into the home but he always wondered what would happen if his parents were still alive. He often thought about his life last year, he was surprised when he was put in Ravenclaw two years ago because he showed no traits of a Ravenclaw student and certainly was never witty. But him wondering would never get him anywhere; he had to focus on what was happening now. And right now he had to focus on helping Victoire. "I'm sorry Victoire, I couldn't help it, and I had to defend you."

"But you didn't have to Teddy; you could have got into serious trouble!"

"Yes but me carrying him to the hospital wing showed everyone I was completely innocent. And I'm pretty sure that that forgetfulness spell worked!" He smirked at Victoire and then turned to look out onto the view in front of him. On that spot was where he spent many lunch times the previous years, the scene was peaceful and Teddy could see everything from here, and now he was sharing it with the most deserving person he could think of. The ground underneath them was weak and the cliff edge before them fell into the lake, at least two hundred feet below. Behind them stood the lofty trees that Teddy many a time found refuge in shade whilst completing homework in the evenings. He never had many friends so no one noticed he was gone.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Victoire breathed in the fresh air and slowly exhaled into the evening sky.

"I suppose so, I used come up here a lot, school got a bit too stressful."

"I think school's great!" she smiled into the orange sunlight and observed the wondrous sight. Of course, Victoire would never find academic subjects hard, taking after her mother in mostly everything including sports and her father's Weasley genes of wittiness and confidence, the first Weasley in Ravenclaw.

"How are you finding lessons?" Teddy looked over and smiled at Victoire whose head was high in the clear atmosphere.

"Great! I love History of Magic though. Did you know that each of the Hogwarts house animals are the pets of each of the founders? Apparently the Hufflepuff Badger was found a couple of decades ago wondering though the woods."

"Shouldn't it have been a bit dead by then?"

"No, they all had an enchantment on them to never die a natural death! Unfortunately, the Badger was killed during Voldemort's first uprising. But the Gryffindor lion was found in one of the paintings on the fourth floor, no one knows how it got in there but no one has ever bothered to find out."

"And Slytherin, let me guess, was killed when Uncle Harry drove a sword threw its mouth?"

"Pretty much yes, I think that that is so romantic that he did it to save his wife!"

"It wasn't his wife then Victoire; it was only because it was Uncle Ron's sister!"

"I suppose, but it's still sweet!" Victoire then continued, "So anyway, the real mystery is that no one has ever seen the Ravenclaw Eagle, some say they have seen it flying over the towers before but they are only rumours. Lots of people don't believe that any of them exist. Erm, actually that's what I was talking about when Velit grabbed my wand. He said that I was stupid and that no unintelligent student would be able to find one anyway."

"That's it!" Teddy had an idea that would let him get one over on Velit.

"What?"

"What if we _found _the Ravenclaw eagle? That would really teach that Velit a lesson!"

"But Teddy, we don't know where the Ravenclaw eagle is!"

"Who says we need _the _Ravenclaw eagle?" Teddy smirked, "Who says we need a _real _eagle in the first place?"

"No! You can't! You _can't _risk it!"

"Well, it's worth a try! Come on! And I'm always bound to fail at something anyway, why not get it over with?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what they say," he grabbed Victoires hand and smiled; "If you live life on the edge, you are always bound to fall." he stood in front of Victoire with the cliff behind him. He looked into her eyes and she smiled back at him. He then stood a step back so his heels sat on the seam of the ground and sky. Victoire gasped as Teddy let go of her hands and fell backwards into the air. Victoires' scream carried with the wind down the face of the rock. It all happened extremely quickly, Teddy's uniform suddenly grew very tight around him and he shrunk in size gradually turned into an auburn colour and his uniform's cotton grew out into feathers. Teddy's head was now only about the size of an apple, his nose had elongated into a long, amber beak. Teddy spread out his wings and flew up into the ochre clouds of the evening.


	3. A Peculiar Conversation

Chapter 3 – A Peculiar Conversation

Victoire Weasley gingerly crept into the Ravenclaw common room, she had already been in there every day, but it still shocked her how amazing it was; The sapphire walls with silver patterns of eagles along with stars; the room height windows always brought in so much light there was no need for torches, for even at night; they reflected the rays on the moon so much that they could see easily. The curtains that covered the windows when they went stargazing inside were navy blue and covered in what seemed like stars plucked from the roof. For in fact, the roof was like the Great Hall roof because it looked like it had no ceiling for it had the night sky on it. Every term, everyone in Ravenclaw would gather in the common room and watch above them as stars would soar pass as they all wished for something, for Victoire though, it was always to do well in her O.W.L.'s even though they were months away.

She peered around the door to check if anywhere was there when she remembered that it was class time. That was another thing, she still felt bad for telling Professor Trelawney that the glass ball had told her to go back to the common room. Of course, Professor was glad that she'd seen an apparent prophecy, but something told Victoire that a bat in the middle of the day may just have been Teddy outside the window which told her to go. Victoire ran into the middle of the room and turned around and looked at the windows until she saw a large, brown eagle flapping about one of the openings. She ran to it and unlatched the window slightly just enough for Teddy to become a mouse and climb in onto Victoire's arm before changing back into the eagle.

Just as she shut the window, the door burst open and everyone came in. They immediately stopped and just stared at her with the eagle on her arm. Victoire did not know where to look; instead, she decided to look straight at the bird and seemed as shocked as them. Within the next minute, the door had now been blocked up as most of them didn't know what to do. Some of them pushed through and just sat down and read whilst others were in complete shock. Promptly, everyone heard Professor Flitwick's high, squeaky voice within the crowd somewhere. "Excuse me, excuse me, what's the commotion here?" he had now just found his way to the front of the crowd, "Oh my! Miss Weasley, is that what I think it is?" all the eyes in the room turned to her as her face became bright red with embarrassment.

"Teddy and I found it in the, erm, the woods, Professor Flitwick, I'm sorry, I..." Victoire was just about to burst into tears, she was extremely nervous and did not know what to do. Fortunately Professor Flitwick butted in.

"Sorry? Sorry, Miss Weasley? But there is nothing to be sorry of. You have found Rowena Ravenclaw's eagle! Hurrah!" He did a little jig. Suddenly, the whole common room was filled with cheers and people went to Victoire and congratulated her and many of the students even stroked the bird. Of course, Teddy loved to finally get some attention but Victoire was still uncertain that what they were doing was right.

The rest of the afternoon flew past as many wanted to see the bird in action. Whilst Victoire was talking to Jessica Puddlewead, someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out the common room, everyone followed. They took her outside to the courtyard and everyone waited in eager for the bird to set off in flight and do some fancy tricks. The whole yard was silent and watched the bird. Nothing happened. It was only until people started to get really bored and got ready to leave when Teddy put his plan into action. He shot up off the first years arm and twirled in the air, he then flew closer to the students and passed over their heads as they watched in awe. Then, finally, he landed back on Victoire and the crowd erupted with applause.

The next Tuesday, during what was supposed to be Teddy Potions class, he sat in the Ravenclaw common room on top of one of the tallest bookshelves. He liked it there; it was where he spent most of his boring days for no one could see him and he could see everyone, I don't know where his teachers actually thought he was because Victoire had told Professor McGonagall that something occurred at home and that he had to go for two weeks, hopefully, Teddy thought, it would all be over by then and they could get on with their lives with always having one over on Velit. That was it. Well, it would have been if two very peculiar people to be in the common room at this time of day hadn't just walked in. Professor McGonagall strode in the room into the room gracefully in her usual green robes with Professor Flitwick clumsily waddling behind her. She suddenly stopped in the centre of the room and faced Professor Flitwick; he strained his neck to look up into her eyes. Teddy assumed no one saw him otherwise Professor Flitwick would have mentioned it. "Now, Filius, do you know why I brought you here?"

"Erm, No, sorry Minerva." he hung his head in shame. Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes and continued.

"Well, we are here to discuss what to do with- wait! Before we start," She dug inside her robe and pulled out her wand. She made an archway motion with it and whispered, "_Dolor_ _Sontius_" the words echoed through the room until it could be heard no more, now everything that the two said seemed to ricochet around too before fading into silence again. "Well, now we can talk properly" she said

"You know, I could have done that much more securely Minerva, silencing charms are my speciality after all, I do work in a class room."

"And so do I Filius." again she rolled her eyes.

"I've always found it handy during exams because only the people in that room can hear it and then silence's any noise getting out of the room."

"I do know Filius!" She snapped, then breathed in slowly, and out as she calmed down. "Now we may talk. You do know what this means? This bird? I'm afraid it means Hogwarts is to close." Professor McGonagall sighed, _This is happening far too many times,_ she thought.

"But why Minerva, it's something to be celebrating that the eagle of Ravenclaw has been found! Not mourning!"

"No Filius, you don't understand! The founders at Hogwarts fought a lot about who was better, and so did their animals. The founders once told that if all the four animals ever returned to Hogwarts, the castle would crumble and fall when the last one lives in the castle for more than a moon cycle, and the next full moon is in five days time! We must get that bird out of the castle without anyone noticing!" Teddy was still sat unnoticed on top of the shelf, overlooking this conversation in shock, (if a bird could show shock on his face I don't know, but he did) "Now, that is all Filius, we have classes to get back to." She waved her wand again and countered the silencing charm and the sounds of every noise became less echoed. The two then left hastily.


	4. The Real Ravenclaw Eagle

Chapter 4 – The Real Ravenclaw Eagle

"So, wait, Hogwarts is closing down?" Victoire shocked eyes were glaring straight into Teddy's annoyed one.

"No! You don't get it! Professor McGonagall _thinks _that Hogwarts is going to crumble down!"

"But it's not, right?"

"No!" Teddy was tired of saying this the third time to Victoire. "Apparently, there was a prophecy that if the last of the four animals came to live at the castle for longer than a whole moon cycle then the castle would fall! So McGonagall told Flitwick that they have to get me out of the castle secretly."

"Wait, so why are you not the eagle now?"

"_Because, _now we tell people that I have come back from home and if the eagle is gone, naturally, people _should _assume that it flew off or something!" Victoire was sure that this plan would not work but they had to try, otherwise there would be widespread panic throughout Hogwarts.

The next day Victoire was on her way to Charms lesson when Jessica Puddlewead ran up to her with a tremendously scared look on her face. "What's wrong Jessica?"

"They said that Hogwarts is going to close!" _Oh dear_, thought Victoire, _how did everyone know about this?_

"Whoever told you that was lying! And anyway, how do you know?"

"Well I was on my way to the staff room to ask Professor Hickleburk for some help with the Muggle research homework when I overheard McGonagall telling him that this place is going to be destroyed!"

"I'm sure it was just a joke. Come on, let's get to Charms." The two walked slowly as they discussed over the Muggle research homework. When they got to the classroom they took their seats next to each other on at the front. The Charms room, like usual, smelt of musty books and moth repellent spells, which was hardly surprising for there were books stacked high at the front of it where Professor Flitwick stood on his own small pile of books. The curtains were drawn and candles were placed between every two desks, unlit, the only light was from the door. In front of each pupil was a little black, sharp rock. Flitwick coughed purposely loud and the noise in the classroom died down.

"Welcome back first years to another Charms class of the year. Today, I want to practise two important charms for you to remember. First of all, you and your partner should see a candle between you, I want you to light the candle with this simple spell." he coughed and raised his wand. "_Lux Flamma_" he pointed his wand at the candle that floated in front of him and suddenly, a small flame arose from the wick and climbed up it. Within five minutes, the whole classroom was dotted with lit candles. "Oh well done class! Now, for the second one this is a complex spell that requires all of you to complete it. The spell we are going to use is '_Totum Summa.' _Repeat after me, '_Totum Summa.'_

"_Totum Summa_" the rest of the class repeated back to him.

"Good, now I will start off with this piece and then I want you to perform the spell on the rock in front of you." he reached into his pocket and lifted out his own diminutive rock. He let it float in front of him and recited the spell. The stone then floated into the middle of the room and rotated on the spot. "Your turn children."

"_Totum Summa_" Victoire lightly tapped her pebble just before it flew straight off the table and joined onto the other rock. Soon it was connected with many others and the growing shape in the centre of the class started to take shape. Unfortunately, it seemed that Artemis Tyler was having trouble pronouncing the _'Summa' _properly but managed to get her rock off the table too and into the middle. As soon as the last piece attached itself, the boulder immediately began to change its form. It was now spinning round rapidly and everyone was trying to make out what shape it was becoming. Finally, it came to a sudden halt and everyone saw that it was a giant black statue of an eagle; the Ravenclaw eagle.

"Congratulations everybody, as you may be able to tell, this is a memorial for the newly found Ravenclaw eagle. This will be put up in their common room along with a silver cage for the eagle."

"But sir," a boy on the back row spoke up. "I saw someone take it out the common room yesterday. It wasn't in there this morning. "

"What?" Flitwick's mouth dropped. "It can't have been, so, it's still in the castle or not?"

"I haven't seen it today in the castle." the boy said.

"Oh."

"Sir?" This time Jessica butted in. "Is the castle going to fall down?" Professor Flitwick's face dropped even lower.

"Who told you that?" Jessica sunk down into her chair and pretended that she didn't hear. Professor Flitwick jumped down off the dusty books he stood on and started to down the classroom towards the heavy wooden door. "The school is certainly not falling down, now excuse me, I must, er, go and talk to Professor McGonagall." he then raced the rest of the length of the room and struggled to yank open the door. When he did he ran out the door as quick as he could.

Victoire knew that he was covering up what he really thought, and so did everyone else. She had arranged to meet Teddy at lunch in the library to talk about what happened in Charms. She strode down the corridor towards the library when she heard a faint whisper behind her. "Victoire!" The first year turned and to see only a couple of students revising Potions, she shrugged it off and turned back around. Again Victoire heard the whisper; she quickly turned to see Teddy's head sticking out the Transfiguration corridor entrance. She ran to him.

"What?" Victoire snapped, "I thought that we were meeting in the library?"

"Change of plans, I saw Gravis in there so I thought maybe not, come on, let's go outside. I've got to tell you something. He grabbed Victoire's hand as he yanked her out on to the castle grounds. June was creeping up onto the grounds. The morning air tasted sweeter and smelled of freshly cut grass. The days were now longer and Flying lessons were much better for everyone. As soon as they got as far as a hundred metre's out of the school Teddy grabbed Victoire by the shoulders and shuck his back like he was getting it loose, suddenly, out of the back of his robe sprung out two large white feathered wings. He lifted his wings high and beat them hard against the grass; they shot straight up into the sky. The wind was warm as it whipped around their faces and blew Victoire's hair into her face. She looked up to see Teddy's face; he looked so concentrated, so focused. That's what she loved about him. No, she couldn't, he was family. But not fully, only because her uncle Harry was his Godson, so that didn't count as family, did it? Before she had any time to think about it, Teddy had landed on top of the cliff and his wings melted away. He led her into the tall trees behind them. The tree stood tall in the woods, they were well spaced out and the light shone through the leaves and left large patches of daylight on the grass. Teddy sat down next to a tree and Victoire got down opposite him. Teddy leant against the bark and breathed out slowly, smiling. "I like it here. Do you?"

"Yeah," Victoire smiled, "I suppose."

"Let's stay here, I heard Professor McGonagall starting to really stress out when Professor Flitwick went to her. She is starting to teach pupils how to fix the school up when it starts to fall down!" Victoire told Teddy all about her Charms lesson. "Exactly what I'm talking about, it is quite clever though, to make a giant statue of it to fool people like they are welcoming it into the castle!"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Well let's stay here then! Just for a couple of days! No one will notice all of this commotion going on! We'll only stay until it dies down!" Victoire was extremely shocked at his suggestion.

"But that's breaking at least twenty school rules!"

"What and this isn't? Outside of school during class time on the top of a potentially life threatening cliff?" he smirked at her.

"No! I'm going back to school! See you later!" She stood up and started to storm down the side of the mountain when she realised that the castle was a good ten miles away and class started in two minutes! She quickly panted back up the hill and back into the woods. "Teddy!" she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted out for him. There was no reply, she shouted again. It was only until the third time she shouted did a giant eagle come soaring down from the rooftops. Victoire sighed. "Oh Teddy! Come on, let's get back to the castle, the bird landed on her shoulder and beat its wings and carried Victoire back to the castle.

Victoire slowly shuffled her way through the castle corridors back to the Ravenclaw common room. She tried to make that fact that she had a giant eagle on her shoulder as discreet as possible. Victoire had tried to make Teddy become himself again but he didn't seem to want to. Luckily, it was class time and no one else was out of lesson. Passing Professor Inkram did scare her when she burst out from around the corner, but all Professor Inkram did was hold he head even higher and pretending to have not seen Victoire. She passed many tapestries and shushing paintings before she reached the common room. When she got in, Victoire let Teddy, who was still an eagle, hop off onto the floor. "Teddy, quick, no one's here! Turn back!" she sat and stared at it waiting for it to suddenly grow out into Teddy. "Teddy, come on!" Suddenly, out of the dormitories room, Teddy popped his out the door.

"What?" he shouted. He then looked down and saw the bird sat on the floor. "Oh."


	5. The Gryffindor Lion

Chapter 5 – The Gryffindor Lion

The two students sat next to each other in the room crossed legged whilst staring right at the bird. The bird looked back sternly at them, which was quite intimidating for Victoire. She glanced over to Teddy as he sat there trying to figure out what the bird was doing, waiting for a response. "It's not going to talk you know!" Victoire eventually spoke to break to silence was about to drive her mad. All Teddy did was look up with sympathy for her.

"I know that! I was just trying to see whether it is actually the real thing; there are some specific marks on it."

"Like what?" Victoire inquired.

"Well to start with, the Eagle has a large blue feather under its right wing, but it doesn't seem to want to lift it for me to see!"

"Well, can't you just talk to it?" Teddy seemed to think this was quite reasonable and momentarily, his nose and mouth started to squeeze together and lengthen out into a thin, sharp, golden beak. He made a few squawking noises and after a long conversation between the two of why it should lift it's wing, the Eagle managed to show them under it's right wing without losing balance toppling over. Just as Teddy had said, a sapphire feather was easily spotted from the rest of the wing. Victoire suddenly realised something and turned to Teddy.

"How do know about the wing?"

"Oh, I found it in this." he held up the book that he was carrying in his arms. It was clad in coal black leather and had down the spine in golden letters; "_Hogwarts; a History, Volume II_"

"Where did you find that? I've spent hours looking in that library for it!" Teddy smirked again at her in the way that he always did.

"That's because it wasn't in the library! Professor Binns had it in his office. I knew I had seen it somewhere and it was just a case of getting it out of there! I got it earlier today whilst you were running down the hill. It has everything that we need to know about the creatures! And listen here: 'The four founders of Hogwarts each owned a creature of their choice. Unknown to most, before they died the four witches and wizards set up a task, one that only one student from each house many try at a time. The challenge is unknown to most but only to the few who are lucky. The entrance to the start of it is said to open every year on the sixteenth of March to celebrate the open of Hogwarts.

'Apparently the last known person to try it was in Gryffindor, he told someone that he was going the empty painting on the fourth floor with a lion.'"He looked up and gasped. "Do you know what this means?"

"What?" Victoire sat up.

"That the entrance to the start of the task opens tomorrow! On the sixteenth of March! We have to go to the empty painting on the fourth floor tomorrow morning!"

"But Teddy, there is no empty painting on the fourth floor."

"Yes, I know, but we do know where there is a Gryffindor lion on the fourth floor!"

The following evening two students carefully ran along the corridors, hoping not to be noticed by Mrs. Norris. The castle rooms were dim with only few torches to light the walls and the prefects were strolling down the corridors in their long night robes. Victoire and Teddy scurried in their robes as fast as they could to the fourth floor, which was only two floors below the common room. Victoire had the Ravenclaw eagle perched gracefully on her left arm. Fortunately, the fourth floor was not home to any common rooms so had not many roaming prefects. The lion was asleep when they got to the painting and looked very tired indeed. At first, Teddy wondered how on earth they were going to wake the sleeping beast, but all of a sudden, it began to stir and wake from its slumber. After blinking numerous times at them, the lion stared more at the eagle than the two children that had been holding it. The lion sighed deeply, it was hard to tell what it was for, whether it was tired, relieved or even upset, they did not know, but before they knew it, the painting had swung open inwardly to reveal a hole in the stone wall.


End file.
